Equipment: Hot Stuff--Gas-Fired Broilers

High heat makes broilers the ideal quick-and-healthy cooking tool.

By Lisa Bertagnoli, Contributing Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 4/15/2007

Gas-Fired Broilers Restaurants that have broilers use them. Extensively. About 65% of the menu at Tiff’s, a five-unit, casual-dining chain based in Pine Brook, N.J., is produced in the broiler. Each Tiff’s has a gas char-broiler, which cooks via a radiant element rather than direct flame. Smaller units, with 150 seats, have 4-foot units, while stores seating 300 use 6-foot broilers.

Marinated chicken, burgers, steaks, fresh salmon, barbecue pork chops and baby back ribs all get a turn in the broiler. Broiled food cooks quickly, with little added fat, and without drying, owner Michael Romanelli says. He says he tried cooking the pork chops, a new menu item, several ways before trying the broiler. "With the other methods, they would dry out," he says. "Now we have figured out how to keep them moist."

Broilers cook quickly with heat that can reach 900F. High heat cooks food quickly, in its natural juices and fats, making it ideal for healthful preparations. However, working with such high heat can prove a training challenge.

"It’s not easy to learn to use," says Jason Miller, executive chef at David Burke’s Primehouse, a 160-seat, upscale steakhouse in Chicago’s James Hotel. Broilers, he says, have quirks, such as hot spots and cold spots, which a cook learns to navigate. "He gets a feel for it," Miller says.

Since half of Primehouse’s menu is prepared on the broiler, an experienced broiler cook is a must. The cook learns to juggle a lean 6-ounce filet with a well-marbled 38-ounce porterhouse, the restaurant’s biggest (and, at a menu price of $77, most expensive) cut. "It’s all in the timing," Miller says.

The restaurant’s 2,000-square-foot kitchen has three 6-foot, gas broilers, fired on top and equipped with ceramic elements. Located on the hot line, the broilers, turn out steaks, lamb and burgers, and occasionally a broiled lobster, if a guest requests it.

While the broiler is a workhorse, Miller says it’s not the type of equipment that usually sparks menu creativity—with some exceptions. At a recent banquet, Miller used the hot grates of the broiler to quickly grill a wedge of Romaine let-tuce for a Caesar salad. "I heated the broiler drawer and laid the Romaine on it for 2 or 3 seconds," Miller says. "It came out great."

Even better, "the dinner was for a bunch of catering executives, and they were all impressed," he adds.

Finishing Touches

Gas-Fired Broilers At John Doering’s restaurants, salamanders are responsible for finishing many dishes.

"It’s a versatile piece of equipment," says Doering, whose St. Augustine, Fla.-based Coastal Restaurant Group operates tapas bar Zhanra’s, casual South Beach Grill and JT’s Seafood Shack.

Each restaurant has a small broiler, or salamander, that sits on a shelf over an range. The gas-fired broilers heat to about 500F.

At South Beach Grill, seafood enchiladas started in the oven finish in the salamander, giving the cheese topping "a good look, not that crusty look," Doering says. Jerk-spiced wahoo served with mango chutney is cooked entirely in the broiler. The only added fat is a squirt of nonstick spray. "It comes out moist, not dry," he says.

At Zhanra’s (shown), cooks stuff scallop shells with blue crab meat, oven-bake them, top them with a bread-crumb mixture, and then finish them in the salamander. "The scallops come out nice and white," Doering says. "And you don’t have to add all the oil for sautéing."

Vegetables, too, get a turn in the broiler. "If they’re half-done, I throw them up there," Doering says. "The heat’s already on … I’ll use it whenever possible."

Lisa Bertagnoli is a Chicago-based freelance writer.